Google Android @Home Precursor to Skynet, Terminators?

In the Terminator universe, Skynet was the all-encompassing hivemind of the robot revolution. It basically gained self-awareness and then spread itself to every machine with a processor and memory. Well, it seems that Google is a agent of humanity’s destruction as it wants to hook all your appliances together via [email protected] Since I’ve been an eternal friend to all forms of electronic life, I’m secure in the knowledge that I might be spared and instead used as slave labor. The rest of you…well, good luck!

I know, that opening paragraph didn’t really tell you anything about [email protected] Like how I managed to get you this deep into the article and still haven’t really told you what it’s all about?

Alright, [email protected] wants to basically do exactly what I said, take all your appliances and network them together so that you can control them with a single device, like say your Android tablet or smartphone. I like it. I might even try to completely build an office in the States based on Android and see just how far I can go to controlling my environment with a single device. Could make for a great article and tech demo.

Android Open Accessory Project

On Tuesday at Google’ I/O conference they released the Android open Accessory project that will allow developers to create accessories that work with all Android devices. So say, a timer application on your Google Android Smartphone acts as your alarm clock to wake you, it also turns on the lights in your room, starts your coffee maker and fires up your Google TV and starts pulling together information you want to read while drinking that coffee.

The [email protected] project will let your Android equipment discover, connect and communicate with appliances and devices in the home. For appliances that do not connect to Wi-Fi, Google designed an open wireless protocol that allows Android devices to talk to them. It enables low-cost connectivity with any electronic device in the home, such as alarm clocks, lights and dishwashers.

It’s pretty cool come to think of it. In some parts of the country there are certain times of day where electricity is more expensive and so you could run things like the dishwasher or clothes washer automatically from afar and save money at the same time.

Even your lights will be smart now

Lighting Science Group is on board with Skynet [email protected] and will make lights with communication capabilities that will connect through a new Android app. Freaky, since it’s a direct connection to the LED bulbs and not the switch or socket. Furthering my Skynet hypothesis, the bulbs will talk to each other.

Supposedly, they will also know when someone is home. So when you walk in, you won’t even have to say, “Computer, lights.” From what Google is saying it was just two months to come up with all of this in cooperation with Lighting Science.

More than just Lighting Tricks

Project Tungsten, also announced, is an [email protected] hub that connects the home to the cloud and offers audio output to home theaters, receivers or speakers. It could even, theoretically push music to other devices via near-field communications.

Where there is music, there is video, or there will be. Remember, music was sort of the multimedia precursor on the Internet because it required less bandwidth. Google is always a forward-thinking company and so there’s no doubt that they’re looking at ways to get video into the mix, perhaps even by the end of the year, if I were a betting man.

Imagine playing a Blu-Ray or DVD of say, the first film in a trilogy, on a menu there could be a connection to instantly buy/rent/stream the other films in the series which could then be automatically sent to your account on a service that can then download it straight to the Project Tungsten hub or other Android device.

Android is taking the Planet by Storm

If you haven’t thought about Android for your online video publishing, it’s time. Soon it will be in more places than you can imagine. If Google is aiming to make it the OS of choice both away from and inside of the home, then there will be no stopping them and you will need to not only do SEO for Google, but also make sure that all of your content is readily available on Android. After all, who doesn’t want to be able to stream a film to their TV, smartphone, tablet, PC, toaster and fridge all at the same time…with the option to also display on a screen in the bathroom.

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